Trust Me
by uzumakeii
Summary: "If you can't put any faith in yourself, then put all your faith in me, and if all this fails, I will take all the blame. So just this one time, trust me." (Mainly SasuHina/some SasuSaku)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter i

Love was stupid.

Well, according to Sasuke it was.

He lost any feelings of love and affection ever since his clan was massacred. Betrayed by his own brother, the one whom he admired and loved the most, it made his heart turned into stone. Feelings of happiness and warmth buried beneath the depths of his heart, piled on top were layers and layers of darkness. He had forgotten what it was like to love someone and to feel loved.

To feel love— Not those shallow crushes his female peers had for him, but actual genuine and unconditional love.

Sasuke never understood why many of his female classmates liked him the way they do. He never understood how they could be so infatuated with someone who didn't even bothered to know their names. They knew nothing about him and vice versa, but for some reason they claimed to be head over heels over him. Because of that, he had to deal with being the cause of outrageous bickering between the other girls, some even formed rivalries to see who would win his affection. Not that he cared about what goes on in their personal lives, he just felt annoyed, and there was nothing more he wanted than to be left alone.

For a long time he felt hatred. He felt angry, paranoid, and hurt. For a long time he walked the streets with a blank stare, dozens of eyes watched him either in secret infatuation or pity because of what happened to his clan. He shrugged off their looks of admiration or worried glances. He didn't care what others thought of him. He didn't need to be pampered or pitied.

He didn't care about anything or anyone really.

He only cared about one thing, and it was revenge.

Oh how he dreamed for revenge. He often wondered how he would kill Itachi, whether or not Sasuke should kill him quickly before even realizing that he was dead, or if he should make his brother suffer long and painful.

Either way, he knew that revenge would be really fucking sweet.

But… After spending years motivated to get his revenge on his brother, years dedicated to getting stronger even if it meant betraying his village and even the one whom he considered his "best friend," he realized that his revenge wasn't as sweet as he hoped it would be.

In fact, as he witness Itachi's dying and staggered breaths, seeing the corners of his brother's lips curl into a small, maybe even relieved, smile, Sasuke realized that he was wrong.

Everything he knew growing up was a lie. He found out that he was betrayed by his own village, not his brother, and once again found himself lost in a spiraling mess of darkness.

000

Sasuke's eyes slowly opened upon feeling the warm sun rays hitting his skin as it shone through his thin curtains. He blinked at the ceiling a couple times, still drowsy with crust filled eyes. But seconds passed and the faint ring of construction drills in the distance snapped him out of his sleepy trance. He looked at the clock, seeing it was 30 minutes till 12 and frowned at how late he woke up. He slowly sat up in bed, throwing the covers aside while letting out a deep yawn. He went to stretch his arms, but remembered that only one arm remained intact while the other had to be amputated due to his dispute a couple months ago with Naruto.

It all felt too surreal.

Not too long ago the entire world could've been put under the Eternal Tsukuyomi. Everyone would be trapped in a dream world, a world where all their fantasies and guilty pleasures would come true. He wondered what his paradise would be like; would his family still be alive, living in peace with the village? Would he be grown up, have a beautiful wife and kids to rebuild his clan? He scoffed at his ridiculous thoughts, knowing that despite how sweet it sounds to live in a world where everything went according to plan, it still would be a lie.

He looked outside his window, and what he saw was far from beautiful. The village went through some serious damage during the war, many lives were lost and homes were ruined.

This was far from paradise. But this was real. All too painfully real.

His feet touched the cool surface of his temporary apartment and he couldn't help, but frown knowing that he wasn't at his usual home— the Uchiha residence. As much as he wanted to stay there instead, Kakashi insisted to stay in one of the local apartments which had the least damaged compared to the areas near the borders of the village. He told him that they would be reconstructing in that area, so it would be more convenient for the workers to rebuild without having to worry about anything dangerous happening to any civilians, and also he wouldn't be bothered with the construction noise as much.

But Sasuke wasn't stupid. He knew Kakashi ordered him to stay there because it was easier to keep an eye on him.

The Uchiha residence was near the outskirts of the village, where it's easier to sneak out if one so happens to chose. Kakashi wanted him to stay at this small apartment near the center of the village so that no matter what, eyes would be on him wherever he went. Did Kakashi think that he was going to betray the village or run away again? He knew very well that despite being let back into the village after assisting Naruto in stopping Kaguya, it was still hard for others to trust him again. Sasuke wasn't surprised of their skeptical glares, but if he wanted to turn his back on any of them, he would have probably already done so, even with just one arm.

"Fucking stupid," Sasuke muttered underneath his breath, talking to no one as he made his way to the shower. He turned the faucet on, waiting a minute or so for the water to heat up before going in and letting the warm liquid softly hit his bare skin. He thought about what he should do today. There wasn't much to do with most of the village practically destroyed, he didn't really have a lot of options. He could always go to the training grounds and get used to the fact that he had one arm, but honestly, he just wasn't in the mood today, or at all.

After defeating pretty much the strongest opponents there was, he felt like he had no more reason to train, no more reason to get stronger.

With all his enemies taken care of, he felt empty. As if he's just rotting the days away, living in a blurred existence.

What's left to live for?

His thoughts were interrupted after hearing the doorbell ring. Quickly finishing up washing his body, Sasuke exited the shower and wore fresh pairs of boxers and slung the towel over his damp hair. He didn't bother throwing on the rest of his clothes because the one at the door wouldn't stop their excessive ringing.

Sasuke opened the door irritably, and without even giving them permission to let the uninvited guest in, they barged in anyway.

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto greeted loudly as he walked in. "Did we interrupt your shower?" Seeing his friend soaking the wooden floors.

Sasuke only glared at him, not wanting to answer because it should've been an obvious, _"Yes you did, idiot."_ He looked to see who was behind him, and of course it was Sakura, who's face was flushed red.

"Good afternoon Sasuke-kun." She greeted, her eyes trying hard to focus on his face.

He only nodded in response and raise a brow, only to realize why she was red in the face.

Right. He was half naked, dripping wet. Any girl's fantasy, he assumed. And Sasuke's pretty sure she's thinking of something obscene, catching the small smirk she had.

He sighed, making his way back to his room, putting on a simple pair of sweats and a shirt that clung nicely to his body and rejoined them back in the living room. "What do you guys want?" He asked, not really annoyed, but not happy at the same time. He dried his hair with the towel quickly before throwing it lazily at the hamper that stood near the bathroom.

Before Naruto could answer, Sakura was already in front of him, "Well it's been kind of hectic since the war is over, with all the construction going around, but a new barbecue restaurant recently opened, so we think this is a great time to get the old team back together and hang out like old times!" She gleamed brightly.

Sasuke contemplated on refusing, but Naruto added, "If you say no, then Sakura-chan and I could always crash at your apartment and have a nice dinner here later."

000

And with that, Sasuke found himself with a face full of smoke, his eyes slightly watering from it, and burning meat filling his nostrils.

"Naruto you're burning it!" Sakura whined, as she took away the metal tongs from the frantic ninja.

Naruto frowned in defeat, his shoulders slumping forward. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan, I'm still trying to get used to only one arm— I was right handed, so using my left hand for everything now is really confusing!" He whined.

Sakura gave him a sympathetic look, and sighed, "Don't worry too much about it, Tsunade-sama said that the prosthetic arm should be ready soon— For the both of you," She said, eyeing Naruto and Sasuke. "Luckily you guys have more than enough chakra to power the joints with ease."

Naruto smiled, leaning closer to Sakura, "Then how about in the mean time, you feed me since I'm currently handicapped?" He suggested as he wiggled his eyebrows.

Sakura's expression immediately grew disgusted, giving Naruto a hard, but playful slap on his shoulder, "No way! You should get used to using your left hand in the mean time."

Naruto only laughed, rubbing the sore area on his shoulder and Sakura smiled as she cooked the meat. Sasuke couldn't help, but feel out of the loop with the team dynamic. Then again, he hasn't seen them in years, so it should be obvious that those two were able to get closer, but didn't know they were this close.

"You guys going out or something?" Sasuke asked bluntly with a bored expression.

Both of his former teammates expressions changed, Naruto's face grew tomato red as he tried to refrain a smile and Sakura almost flung a piece of meat across the room from shock.

"W-what no way!" Sakura denied, "Besides, it's hard to even think about getting into relationships when you were away." She told him.

Sasuke just shrugged as he looked out the window. Naruto coughed and looked at his quiet friend's missing arm. "So, how are you holding up with just using one arm? I'm sure you're not having much of a hard time since you are right handed."

"Eh... It's annoying, but I guess it's better than being dead." Sasuke answered as he continued to stare out the window, watching by passers walk by. From the entrance of the restaurant he heard the bells chime.

"Ah well if it isn't Team 8. What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, his voice bouncing off the walls of the restaurant.

"What do you think we're here for? To eat obviously! I'm tired of the ration foods we've been getting, so I'm glad that we're finally able to eat something good." Kiba answered back, equally as loud.

Great. Another annoying team was here, Sasuke thought, not bothering to turn around.

"I know right? I'm glad that we're able to find a table before the lunch rush." Sakura added.

"Ah-! That's right! Crap we got here too late, the place is filled!" Kiba yelled in distraught. "I knew I shouldn't have stayed at the vet an extra hour for Akamaru-"

There was a light chuckle from Sakura's lips. "Feel free to sit with us! We do have a six seater table anyway. We'll just order more meat and split it amongst ourselves."

Sasuke had to stop himself from sighing out loud. He didn't even want to eat lunch with his own team, now he has to eat it with his team and this other one.

"Excuse me." A soft voice came from his right.

Sasuke almost jumped because he didn't even realize that someone was there. He turned his head to be met with pale lilac eyes, but the eye contact was quickly broken when she looked away. "Um... I was wondering if you could move a bit so Shino-kun and I could have a b-bit more room to fit in Sa- Uchiha-san."

Hm... What was her name again? She's a Hyuuga that's for sure. Sasuke said nothing, but scooted over. Despite the fact that he gave them a lot of room, the Hyuuga girl was distances away from him and for some reason, that annoyed Sasuke a bit, but he didn't care enough to say something about it.

Kiba ordered more meat. Besides Kiba, the rest of his group was actually pretty quiet. "Sakura-chan, how is it like working at the hospital?" The Hyuuga asked softly.

Sakura's eyes perked up, just barely catching the question, "Ah it's hard. Tsunade-sama has me working my ass off to tend to the patients since there were a lot that were injured during the war. I don't mind at all though, but..." Sakura pursed her lips, a slight annoyance evident on her face, "There was this one patient that keeps trying to get me to go out with him."

"Was it Lee?" Naruto joked, earning a high five from Kiba.

Sakura's eyes widen, "What? No! It's just a guy name Takeo. I'm pretty sure he likes me because I treat him, other than that he knows nothing about me, so it's strange that he would try so hard."

Sasuke snorted thus causing everyone at the table to look at him.

"What was that?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke stared back at them, but said nothing and looked out the window instead to try and drown out their meaningless conversation. She should know full well of wasted efforts on a crush, Sasuke thought as his eyes wandered to the clouds.

000

"Okay the meat is done cooking!" Sakura announced. Naruto and Kiba made no hesitation to dig in and Sasuke finally turned around. He waited till everyone was done fighting for the meat to finally get his share.

"This is so good after all the work I had to do earlier this morning." Naruto smiled, savoring the taste of the meat.

"Bah honestly, I was hopping I wouldn't see you today. It's annoying seeing your clones constantly running around everywhere in the village. One of you is more than enough." Kiba scowled with food in his mouth.

"Careful Kiba-kun, your food might spill out." Hyuuga softly commented as she smiled.

"Hey! After the war, there's a limited amount of workers to help with construction.." Naruto argued back, "Besides, I'm the only one with enough chakra to create and maintain that amount of shadow clones heh." A big grin was plastered on his face.

Kiba rolled his eyes, "Whatever, we're doing stuff that's equally as important, right guys?" He turned to his team and Shino nodded his head and the Hyuuga gave him a smile of approval. "We're part of the tracking unit, so we help find those who went missing, whether they're fellow shinobi or missing family members."

They all slowly turned their heads to Sasuke who was quietly eating his food. He looked up from his rice with an emotionless gaze and chewed slowly.

"What?"

"What do you mean _what?_ it's your turn to share what's been going on in your life after the war." Naruto told him. From the corner of his eyes, Naruto spotted Kiba trying to steal a piece of his meat and quickly swatted it away.

Sasuke shrugged, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" All of them chimed in.

"Sasuke-teme, you can't be doing nothing. Kakashi sensei gave us all a duty to do." Naruto told him, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Sasuke only shrugged again, "Believe me if you want, but all he did was give me some shitty apartment and that's that."

Sakura tapped her chin in thought, "I wonder why he wouldn't assigned you a duty."

"Maybe he forgot?" Naruto suggested.

"Why the hell would he forget? He's the Hokage now, he's even got the two bums, Shikamaru and Chouji working their asses off." Kiba added in, quickly shutting down that idea.

Sasuke grew irritated, slamming his chopsticks down. "We all know why." Earning all of their concerned looks. "He doesn't trust-"

"If you want, you could always help us out at the tracking unit." A soft voice interrupted.

Sasuke was taken aback- Actually all of them were surprised as they turned to the Hyuuga.

"Oi, what are you saying Hinata-chan?" Kiba questioned.

Oh right her name was Hinata, Sasuke clarified to himself and waited for her to explain further.

"W-well..." She started, with her gaze fixated on her bowl of rice, "I think Uchiha-san would be very useful because he'd be able to use his Sharingan to help find people that are still missing."

Sasuke scoff, "Why do you need me when they already have you. Your eyes have a greater perception than mine."

"Whoa was that a compliment?" Kiba whispered.

"I don't know, I can't tell. With the way Sasuke talks, he always sounds like he's insulting someone." Naruto whispers back.

Hinata stayed quiet a bit, her cheeks showed a tinge of red, "True... But there's only one of me and still more people missing. More help would be nice. J-just think about it for now."

The awkward silence was interrupted when a new order of meat came in. Kiba and Naruto smiled hungrily as they quickly placed the raw meat on the grill.

Hinata turned her attention towards the food and Sasuke couldn't help, but glance her way. He didn't notice that she knew he was staring at her and tried her best to keep her hands from shaking.

000

With the majority of the meat gone, everyone sat with their bellies stuffed.

"I'm so full, ugh I might throw up." Naruto joked as he patted his stomach and Sakura quickly shoved him away in disgust.

"Come on guys, there's one meat left. As much as I'd like to eat it, I feel like I'll explode." Kiba groaned, covering his nose, grossed out from the smell of meat. "Shino, you want it?"

"I, too wouldn't mind eating it, but like you, I am also-"

"Bah just say no if you don't want to." Kiba huffed out.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, might as well take it since no one else was going to. But as soon as he reached for it another pair of chopsticks were also reaching for it too.

"Ah! I'm sorry, go ahead Uchiha-san." Hinata offered as she retracted her hand away.

Sasuke clucked his tongue, "It's no big deal, you take it. You didn't eat that much."

Hinata shook her head, "N-no it's fine, I have a small stomach..."

Sasuke grew annoyed and took the piece of meat and placed it on her bowl. He let out an irritated sigh and looked out the window once again.

She murmured out a small "Thank you" which Sasuke ignored.

"Well, our lunch break is almost over, we have to leave soon." Kiba said, "Thanks for letting us eat with you!"

"No problem, let's hang out again another time." Sakura smiled.

And with that, Team 8 split the pay, said their goodbyes and they left.

There was a small chuckle, causing Sasuke to raise his brow with curiosity. "Hinata-chan is cute." Sakura commented while staring at Sasuke's bowl.

He looked down to see half of the meat sitting in his bowl. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Stubborn girl, I told her she could have it, he thought.

Seeing that Sasuke wasn't interested in eating it, "Hmm if you don't want it, might as well help myself." Naruto grinned, reaching over to the bowl.

Sasuke quickly snatched his bowl away, "I thought you were full, idiot."

"I mean I am!" Naruto started, "But I'm sure I have room for that tiny piece of meat." He laughed.

Sasuke glared at him and in a deep voice he said, "It's mine." He ate it and he should've known that it already would have been cold and lost it's juicy tenderness, but for some reason, Sasuke savored that last piece of meat and felt strangely... satisfied.

* * *

 _Okay this if my first Naruto related fic lool SasuHina is like my guilty pleasure- I know it'll never happen, but I can't help, but just ship it ahaha but anyway I hope you like it! Fanfiction is so confusing, how to you even use this site omg._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter ii.**

There was a tense atmosphere in the Hokage's office early the next morning.

Sasuke walked into Kakashi's study, unannounced, eyes already glaring daggers at his former teacher. Kakashi offered him to sit down as they talked, but Sasuke remained standing.

Three minutes passed and not one of them said a word. Kakashi sighed and looked up at Sasuke. "So, what brings you here—"

"Why haven't you assigned me a duty like everyone else?" Sasuke questioned.

"Ah…" Kakashi finally placed his documents down. "I figured you would want to… get yourself readjusted to this place since it's been so long. You know, be reacquainted to the place that was once home."

Sasuke scoffed, tilting his head to the side, "Readjusted? How can I do that if more than half the village is destroyed, forcing me to live in some shitty apartment, and seeing hundreds of Naruto clones running around?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "Well, it would probably take a bit more time for this to fully be home again." He chuckled softly before picking up his documents again. "If you're main concern was the fact that I didn't assign you a duty, then why don't you help out Naruto and the rest with reconstruction?"

Sasuke made a face, which told Kakashi that that was a clear no.

"Well, you don't have any medical experiences, but you can still be a care taker volunteer at the hospital where Sakura—"

"Pass."

"Alright then, the final option is the tracking unit, which I'm certain that you're abilities would be more than helpful to the group."

Sasuke remained silent, but he remembered what Hinata told him the other day about needing more assistance—

"What exactly do they do?" He asked, not sure if he wanted to say yes, but anything sounded better than construction and taking care of sick or injured people. He knew very well that being patient and tending to others was out of his capabilities.

"Since the war, many people have been separated from their family and friends and even several criminals have escaped. We receive missing person reports, which are then handed down to the tracking unit. They're in charge of finding those who are missing and they bring them back here… whether they're alive or dead."

When Sasuke didn't answer, Kakashi let out another sigh. Sasuke watched his calculated gaze, the eye bags under his teacher's eyes were more prominent. There was a slight redness in his eyes, and Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose before speaking again. "Look, give some time to think over what you want to do okay? Why don't you visit the different groups to see how the work is done and then come back once you've made your decision." He stood up and walked towards the door, opening it slightly to let Sasuke out, "Other than that, as much as I'd love to catch up with my former pupil, there's a lot of work to be done."

Sasuke let out a soft grunt before leaving the room, hearing the soft click of the door shut behind him.

He walked along the main roads, makeshift stores are opening for business that morning, the children running off to school, and people heading out to work. There was cheerful greetings around him and Sasuke looked up, meeting eyes with another shinobi. The male shinobi's smile faded away and his lips thinned out to a straight line. He quickly averted his eyes, and Sasuke walked on, his expression remaining neutral. It wasn't too long until he heard that shinobi happily greeting the other villagers again.

All this talk about home and helping out just didn't register in his head. Why should he when he's basically treated like a walking time bomb.

000

Sasuke didn't know how much time has passed while he stared quietly at the tomb stone that was in front of him. Etched onto the stone was his brother's name, Itachi Uchiha. He knew that this was only here out of respect towards Sasuke and he also knew his brother wasn't buried here like the rest of those who have died.

No… There was nothing but soil and dirt beneath this grave. His body was probably rotting away somewhere from their final battle. He shook away those thoughts and mentally apologized in his head to his brother. After coming out of his silent trance of staring at that stone for hours, he finally felt the chill of the early morning. He had no idea what made him want to visit the cemetery, but as he looked around, it was a lot bigger than he thought. He honestly had nothing else to do and he had no idea what he would do for the rest of the day besides mindlessly walking around town or shutting himself away in his apartment.

He thought back to his conversation with Kakashi a few days ago, but his thoughts were interrupted when a soft voice called out to him from behind.

"Uchiha-san?"

Sasuke got up from the ground, patting away the dirt from his pants and turned around. Before him stood the pale Hyuuga, clad in unflattering baggy clothing. "What are you doing here?" He asked, feeling the cold wind blow past him.

Hinata looked down, in her hands were a bouquet of flowers. "I... Came to visit Neji-niisan." She answered, her eyes looking passed him to a tomb stone further down in the aisle. Sasuke nodded and let her walked passed, watching her walk towards the grave which was filled with all types of flowers and incense decorating the stone.

Before Sasuke was about to walk away, Hinata called out to him. "Have you thought about what I told you last week?" She asked, her voice was quiet that it could have been carried away with the wind.

"Hm." Sasuke shifted his gaze towards her. She wasn't looking at him. Instead her eyes were closed and she held her hands in a prayer gesture. He did think about it, especially after his conversation with Kakashi, but he was still on the fence of accepting that offer. He could care less about those that were missing, but the boredom of not doing anything was draining him.

Hinata opened her eyes, her lips curling in a small smile. "You don't have to if you don't want to… B-but you've been away from our village for a while now."

"What's the point?" Sasuke asked a slight irritation in his voice. He noticed her eye brows furrowing a bit, the curve of her smile slowly fading away. Her shoulders were tense and he could tell that she was holding her breath. Almost everyone in the village had the same weary look where they assumed that he was out to get them or something.

"I think it would be nice if you helped out b-because you are a fellow Konoha shinobi and any help would be welcomed." Hinata told him.

Sasuke only stared at her, she wasn't looking at him, in fact she was trying to look anywhere else instead of trying to meet his eyes. With that, Sasuke smirked with satisfaction at the thought that she was cowering in his gaze. "Why so persistent Hyuuga?"

She raised her head, catching his eyes for a brief moment, the expression on his face was grim, but she locked eyes with him, "Aren't you tired of being alone?" She uttered out softly.

Sasuke parted his lips, just barely catching what she said. She quickly bowed to him, but didn't forget to say "Goodbye Uchiha-san" as she left.

000

He later found himself wandering the streets of Konoha. Memories flooded his mind with every street he passed, a wave of nostalgia overcame him, but the more he dug deeper into his past, the more his memories became foreign to him. The thought that he was once a naive child who had a family seemed so unreal. He wasn't that old, but he feels like there was an abrupt transition from his childhood to becoming an adult. The place he once considered home faded away.

Where was home? Because this certainly didn't feel like it.

Catching Sasuke off guard, a black sleeved arm was slung around his shoulders. Sasuke spun his head towards the one who latched onto him and saw a overly cheery Naruto grinning at him.

"Where's the real Naruto?" Sasuke asked, shrugging off the arm from him.

"Aha so you knew I was a clone even without your Sharingan." The Naruto clone smiled as he rubbed the bottom of his nose with his index finger.

Sasuke stared at the clone with a quizzical look because he knew that wasn't the real Naruto because he had both his arms. But he decided to keep that tidbit to himself since there's no point in further pointing out its stupidity.

"He's in charge of construction duty downtown... But he's currently playing hooky and eating ramen at the old Ichiraku stand." The clone said before running off to who knows where.

Sasuke didn't care where Naruto was, but before he knew it, he stood in front of the familiar ramen stand to see an annoying orange ninja sitting in one of the chairs. He was going to continue walking along, but he heard his name being called out from behind him.

"Sasuke! What're you doing here?" Naruto smiled, running up to him.

"No reason. I just happened to be walking in this direction." Sasuke answered monotonously.

"Since you have time to mindlessly walk around, why don't you keep me company while I work?" Naruto asked.

"I have other plans."

"Kakashi-sensei told me you'd be coming by sooner or later, so no you don't."

"Yes I do."

"Like what?"

"... I'm leaving."

"Wait wait wait, I was kidding!" Naruto said while pulling Sasuke back.

Sasuke glared at him and Naruto instantly released him. "Look, why don't you stick around, maybe... Help out a bit? Unless... That's too much for you." Naruto said, looking to the side as he scratched his head. He had to refrain himself from smirking, waiting to see if Sasuke will take the bait.

Sasuke stayed silent, feeling his head heat up a bit. He knew Naruto was just trying to annoy him— and it was working! Gritting his teeth, he reluctantly let his idiot friend lead the way.

000

The downtown area was worst than what Sasuke imagined. Buildings were nothing but rubble, sewage systems were destroyed, and there was a strong stench that made it difficult to breathe properly. Sasuke breathed slowly through the mask that Naruto gave him as he watched his friend hammer on new roof tiles on one building with the assistance of another clone.

"You come here everyday, doing this?" Sasuke asked, his brows furrowing with disgust.

Naruto nodded, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his gloved hand. "Yup. Everyday from 6am to 6pm."

"Why?"

"Why?" Naruto repeated, grabbing another tile, "Because it's my job as a fellow shinobi."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You helped saved the world and they put you in construction duty, makes sense to me." He said sarcastically, beneath his mask he was frowning in disgust.

Naruto only laughed, his shoulders bouncing lightly, "It makes a lot of sense to me. This is our home, not only that, but I'm going to be Hokage some day, so I got to take care of my village right? I can't have it looking and smelling like shit right?" He looked down at Sasuke and gestured for him to join him up at the roof, "Come here, maybe you'll be able to feel a sense of accomplishment if you do this too."

Sasuke jumped onto the roof, might as well give it a try if he was going to be there. Naruto laid a tile down next to the previous one, inserting a nail through one of the holes in the corner and handed Sasuke a hammer. "Alright, all you have to do is just—"

"Yeah yeah I got it." He told him, hammering the tile in place. They repeated that until all four corners were nailed down and continued onto the next tiles.

"Awe look at us." Naruto started, "Working together like comrades."

"Shut up."

Naruto's eyes widen, "What? What's wrong with what I said? It's true! Doesn't this make you feel good?" He questioned as he held the nail in place.

Sasuke remained silent, hammering the nail down. "I feel gross."

"Well, they're still working on cleaning up all the debris and stuff from the sewage." Beneath Naruto's mask, he pouted, placing another nail down. It was true, the stench from the sewers would seep into his clothes and hair while staying there for long periods of time. "But you know, doing these types of things, doesn't it remind you when we had to do all those annoying D ranked missions when we were younger?"

"Yeah…" Sasuke answered, a small smirk appearing on his lips as he began reminiscing about the times Naruto would constantly get into trouble during those types of missions because he was too extreme. Embarrassed that he was smiling, Sasuke was relieved that he was wearing a mask to hide it. Thinking back, he had so much determination and motives when he was younger. All those years driven by pure vengeance made him lose out on a lot of things within his childhood. Even though he's done a number of things that are looked down upon, he can't say he regretted them. Without those events, he wouldn't be where he was now.

But the question is, where is he? What stage in his life is he at?

Everyone around him seemed to be working towards their goals and dreams, but what about him? After finding out the truth about his clan, about his family, about his village, he didn't know where he stood. The fire that fueled him all those years, died down until it burnt out eventually.

"So… You don't really have much to do now a days right, Sasuke?" Naruto casually brought up.

Sasuke sighed, "No, nothing seems to interests me lately."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, "What about women?"

"What about them?" He quickly answered back, focusing more on the tiles before him rather than the conversation.

He noticed the orange clad ninja was shifting his body around. "Well, we're only 18 you know, got our whole life ahead of us. You could always go on a few dates, plus I remember you always went on about how you want to rebuild your clan and— sHIT."

Naruto quickly retracted his hand, waving it back and forth. A growing pain pulsing on his thumb. Sasuke held up the hammer looking off to the side.

000

"Naruto can you just calm down for a second, this isn't even a serious injury!" Sakura yelled, placing a cold ice pack on Naruto's thumb. "I have other patients to tend to, and you come up here with a purple thumb."

"What are you talking about? Sasuke swung that hammer down with the force of a thousand suns." Naruto narrowed his eyes as he stared at Sasuke who stood in the corner of the room. He knew that his thumb would be fine in no time, but to be honest, it was just a silly excuse to visit Sakura at the hospital. "I swear he was trying make me lose this hand too." He added, jokingly.

Sakura gave a powerful blow to the back of Naruto's head in irritation. "Enough already, I'm sure it's just an accident, right Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke shrugged, making Sakura wonder if what he did was intentional or not. "What were you guys fighting about this time anyway?"

This time Sasuke spoke up, " We weren't fighting, Naruto was just being stupid."

She turned around to look at Naruto who held up his hand in defense, "I wasn't being stupid, we were just talking about how Sasuke needed to get a life and stop being a bum all day."

"I would probably hit you too if you said that to me." Sakura huffed out, shaking her head.

"Okay, okay I didn't say that— But I did say that he should try relaxing and go out on a few dates or something—"

At the sound of 'dates' Sakura's eyes lit up with joy, "D-dates? As in dating?" She asked, quickly turning her head towards Sasuke.

Sasuke grunted, shooting a glare at the other ninja for opening his mouth. "Not interested…"

"How would you know that if you never tried? Live a little will you?" Naruto protested, his voice raising a bit.

Sakura played with the ends of her hair, "Yeah, I actually agree with Naruto. I mean, you know, that's also another option that you have when you have free time."

Sasuke looked highly displeased. It was true, he did say that he wanted to rebuild his clan— he has no choice but to do that, but the thought of actually dating was just something that never came up during the time that he was away from the village. It's not like he was repulsed by the idea of dating, but he didn't know where to begin, to have another person close to his heart— another person seeing him so vulnerable was unfathomable to him.

He's seen what love could do to other people, so the fact that he would be giving the other person the power to dictate his emotions and actions almost… scared him.

Not only that, but what if he were to let someone in, and what they find while looking into Sasuke's innermost thoughts, his desire, and his secrets, do they decide that he was a monster.

He knows that he's not the friendliest person, most would say that he's pretty unpleasant to be around, and after the war, that unpleasantness multiplied. Just knowing all that about himself— practically hating that that's just how he was and no matter what, he can't change it, makes him wonder: if, even he can't find it in himself to love who he was, what makes him think that another person would be able to do that?

But as Sasuke looked to Naruto, the doubts he had in his mind lessened a little. Naruto went through great lengths to bring him back, even when the world turned on him, Naruto still believed in him. And even though Sasuke will never admit it outright, that is something that he will always appreciate.

If someone like Naruto, his best friend who was able to gain respect, not just from the village of Konoha, but all of them, accepts him… Then maybe, just maybe there might be one more person that would be able to love Sasuke, even if he probably didn't deserve it.

The only question now is who?

"Yo Sasuke, you alright there? You've been spacing out for the past ten minutes." Naruto called out, Sakura laughing a bit after seeing Sasuke's dazed face. It was different from his usual nonchalant or glaring expression. It felt refreshing to her.

"I'm… fine." Sasuke told him, his eyes looking from him, then towards Sakura. He couldn't believe he was going to say this, but after going over it, maybe he had nothing to lose. "Sakura," He started, she instantly looked up towards him upon hearing her name.

"Yes?"

Sasuke shifted the weight from one leg to the other, glancing first at the floor, then slowly meeting her green eyes. "I… Maybe we—" Damn it, he couldn't believe he was fumbling over his words.

"What is it Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, her cheeks slowly turning red.

"Yeah spit it out." Naruto told him, messing with the ice pack in his hand.

"What I'm trying to say is," Sasuke let out an irritated sigh, "Go on a date with me, Sakura."

* * *

 _Thank you so much for the kind reviews! I know it might be confusing a bit as to why Sasuke chose Sakura- but hopefully it'll make sense in the future! SasuSaku is important in order to build up to the SasuHina in this fic lool And him joining the tracking unit is something that'll come up later on. It's hard to build up a relationship out of nothing, but it's a nice challenge haha (oh and for the record I love pretty much every character in Naruto and I_ _respect all ships, but please try to respect mine- or just don't even bother commenting? idk LOL Thank you again! I'll try to update soon~_


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